Mapping the landscape of inequality: analyzing sources of privilege in Turkish academia

Abstract

This study examines how privilege is perceived and experienced within Turkish academia, a context shaped by distinctive sociocultural hierarchies, political dynamics, and institutional arrangements. It explores how institutional, socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors shape access to resources, recognition, and career advancement. A qualitative research design was employed, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 18 academics from diverse disciplines, institutional types, and career stages in Türkiye. Interviews explored participants' experiences of privilege and disadvantage across academic work, evaluation processes, and professional networks. Thematic analysis was used to identify recurring patterns among structural, relational, and epistemic factors shaping academic careers. Privilege in Turkish academia emerged as multidimensional and intersectional, shaped through interacting structural, cultural, institutional, and relational mechanisms. Key sources of privilege included gender, institutional prestige, disciplinary and methodological hierarchies, socioeconomic background, political alignment, informal networks, and fragmented evaluation and promotion systems. While some patterns reflected broader global academic hierarchies, local sociopolitical and institutional conditions produced distinct configurations of advantage and disadvantage, challenging assumptions of meritocracy, fairness, and transparency within academic labor systems. The findings support efforts to improve transparency, consistency, and equity in academic evaluation and career advancement processes across higher education institutions. This study extends the literature on academic privilege by moving beyond Western-centric frameworks and developing a context-sensitive conceptual understanding of inequality within non-Western higher education systems. By integrating intersectional, institutional, and sociocultural perspectives, the study demonstrates how global academic hierarchies are mediated through local political, institutional, and cultural conditions.